Bulls eschew the excuse of snowy conditions

Bulls backline coach Chris Rossouw has said that the team aren’t looking for excuses after their loss to Lyon on Saturday.

In their first ever outing in France, the Bulls experienced trying conditions.

No BS from Bulls coach

However, Rossouw doesn’t feel that the conditions were that bad and instead focused on a lack of discipline from his team.

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“For us, it was our first encounter in France,” Rossouw said.

“We came up against a French side that was playing at home and it was completely different.

“You can look at the conditions and travel as an excuse. It was extremely cold and the snow came down towards the end, but the reality is that the conditions weren’t that bad in the end.

“Put that aside, we conceded too many penalties that put us under pressure and had too many technical errors.

“In the first half, it was 11 penalties conceded and in the second half, we brought that down to five. We came back well in the second half – take my hat off to the guys – but put ourselves under immense pressure at the beginning of the match and that showed on the scoreboard.”

Despite the result Lyon bow out of the Champions Cup while the Bulls move on to the last 16.

The positives

Rossouw was heartened by the Bulls second half performance and feels they are trending in the right direction as we approach the business end of the season.

“It was a disappointing experience, but also a positive one in that we were in this game in both halves,” Rossouw said.

“We also had patches like that against the Sharks and Stormers. Only time will get us to a point where we can control these games better.

“It’s extremely difficult to win in France. If you want to win here, you have to be clinical, be brave and take your opportunities. We had the opportunity. We also need to adapt better to playing on artificial turf.”

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